About Urban Jeff

2 Comments

BobApril 24, 2012 at 5:10 pm

I think we as cyclists are kind of desensitized to this stuff– Most of us do our best to get used to or ignore the tiny but real possibility of getting seriously messed up as we ride around. We take what precautions we can and then we try not to think to much about it.

But we really should be getting outraged about what’s been going on in NYC. The real injustice isn’t the risks; we’ve known about and lived with that for ages. The injustice is the NYPD’s systemic and consistent refusals to investigate car-bike and car-pedestrian collisions when they happen. They’ve been doing this for years, and in a city where such incidents happen nearly every day.

It’s one thing to live with the possibility of getting hit by a car. It’s quite another to live with the certainty that if you ever were, the NYPD would do absolutely nothing to help you.

Joe PeraltaApril 26, 2012 at 4:11 am

From the Arizona Republic website yesterday – -

Shawn McCarty was riding his bicycle on Thompson Peak Parkway in Scottsdale last month when an SUV hit him in the bike lane, causing him to fly into the air about 30 feet and land on a sidewalk about 20 feet from his bike. The cyclist, a 53-year-old from Scottsdale, was dead an hour later.

The driver of the black Chevrolet Tahoe, Amy Sue Alexander, was cited for unsafe passing of a bicycle and driving in the bicycle lane. For the two tickets, Alexander, 41, paid a fine of $420 in Scottsdale City Court.

According to the Scottsdale police report, witnesses who were in a car behind Alexander’s SUV said they saw a bicyclist in the bike lane. They said they saw the SUV “slowly fade into the bike lane and then hit the bike rider from behind.”

Alexander told police that she was going about 40 to 45 mph and was not in any hurry. It was about 4:30 p.m. She and her two children were returning home from a visit to their grandfather’s home. Scottsdale police said Alexander was not talking on the phone or texting. There were no signs of impairment.

- – and that’s all. “Vehicular homicide of a cyclist, $420. Next case.”

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